


Brutalist

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Execution, F/M, Older, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4606821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>War has turned Connie into a ruthless killer. Steven couldn't take it. Can she?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Past

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I threw together because I was bored. I hope you like it.

Life on the Earth was unforgiving. As the personification of the undying will of the human race she couldn’t afford to be anything but unforgiving. Pearl had taught her how to die. She had to learn to kill on her own.

At first Connie was hesitant to crack Gems, even in self defense. That feeling left quickly. It was shocking how used to killing a young girl could become, let alone how much she would grow to enjoy it. She loved the feeling of beating large Gems who were so confident in their superiority. She began to seek the rush of emotion that came from ending lives. Seeing Gems beg only to be silenced by a swift strike from the very creature they considered so lowly.

Connie wasn’t ignorant of much. She saw the change in how Steven acted around her. In the beginning there was apprehension. After the first year of the war she thought there would be understanding. As the years dragged on, the two of them fell apart ideologically while they grew closer physically. Steven never became jaded by the violence. Deep down he was still the warm little boy who saw the beauty in everything. Steven always took prisoners, he healed cracked Homeworld Gems, he always felt real sorrow at any casualty be it friendly or otherwise. Whereas Connie grew colder and more distant from compassion. She still cared if her own soldiers were killed, sure, but the invading Gems threatened her home. She couldn’t spare any emotion for their loss, and it was reflecting on how Steven began to treat her.

Now, Steven wouldn’t even look at her when they slept together. Though they’d never admit it, neither to each other nor the Crystal Gems, they hadn’t been able for form Stevonnie in years. Connie found herself taking troops out on solo missions more and more, so she could have freedom in how she dealt with the enemy and escape the jilted stares she received from her husband. Steven wasn’t ignorant either, he must have at least wondered the reason her platoon never brought back prisoners. Either it was a reality he didn’t want to face, or one he was afraid to.

One day she forced his hand. A small squad of Citrines snuck into camp at night, not an unusual occurrence. Every month or so, the Homeworld brass would try to end the war with a single swift and decisive attempt on Steven’s life. Even five on one, the Gems didn’t stand a chance against the New Knight of Roses. The fight was over in a flurry before Steven could even get out of bed. Her heart was racing as she drug a lithe flailing limbless body onto the bed. She’d learned a way to pinch Gems just right to keep them from popping out of existence in that feeble way they did. Adrenaline was coursing through her body, and even though Steven was there she couldn’t stop herself. The would be assassin just squirmed and shouted in fear as she drew her karambit. Screams of pain and terror filled the otherwise still night as Connie dug the blade under the hollow flesh and slowly split the Gem from it’s off side. It was supposed to be impossibly painful. It was her favorite way to execute prisoners. When the tip of her blade poked through the front of the yellow Gem, a fifth bright flash of light and gust of wind pierced the dark of the tent.  
The look on Steven’s face brought Connie back to reality. The boy who was once her lover.

“Connie…” he uttered her name. He was too old to cry anymore, but he looked like he wanted to.

“She tried to kill you, Steven.” She’d have to get in front of this if there was any chance of salvaging the situation. It was clear there wasn’t any. The look on Steven’s face was all the response she needed. “Steven, we can’t afford to show mercy. Every day we lose more cities. We have to make them pay, Steven.”

“Connie…” He was everything to her. She missed him so much now. She missed the days when he’d look at her with those loving eyes. Now there was nothing left in that gaze but hurt and mistrust.

“Steven, I will continue my campaign against the Invaders. Whether you like it or not.” She shouted as guards rushed in. The guards she knew would never protect him like he needed. Pearl used to talk about how she was willing to die for Rose Quartz. Connie was willing to kill for Steven. If Steven didn’t want her that was fine. Earth needed her. Humanity needed her. She knew to save the planet she loved, she’d need to be ruthless.


	2. Is Never Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back by popular demand.

Connie fidgeted with the golden wedding band around her finger. It was symbolic of something, once. Now it was just a memento. A reminder of good times, and of bad.

The sky was bright pink as always, signifying Rose Quartz’s ancient planetary shield was still up. She was so relieved when they had discovered it. To her it had meant that no one else’s parents needed to die from orbital bombardments. But now it was just a wall between her and what she sought most.

The yellow capital ship gently slid across the heavens. Its crab-like shape starkly defined against the low hanging sun. There were more. There should be more. Peridot and Pearl had designed a subspace jammer which disallowed faster than light travel within several dozen parsecs. Connie wished she never helped build it. She was getting tired of hunting technicians and servants and officers. If the thing was off there’d be hundreds of shapes in the sky. Not just yellow, but blue and white and maybe even other colors. And with them would come new fighters ready to give their lives to take Earth.

No, that was a foolish thought. She shouldn’t seek fights. This planet needed to be protected, and she couldn’t do it forever. There wasn’t any chance of someone replacing her. She and Steven had tried, and even succeeded once. But she didn’t want to think about that now. War was no place for children, anyway.

She was a grown woman, almost thirty. She’d managed to keep a good track of time when she’d been alone. After she left Steven that night over three years ago, she’d lead her rogue platoon on a vicious offensive piercing straight into the heart of the Homeworld planetary forward base in North Africa. Connie smiled when she remembered how loyal her troops were. To a man, they had all disavowed the Crystal Gems and fought for her. But they weren’t strong like her, even with all the training she could give them. For every Gem warrior they took down, three of her soldiers fell. To a man, they had all been slain on the battlefield.

The sacrifice was not in vain. The Homeworld Gems were scattered and confused with their main foothold on the surface decimated.  
She’d won right?

With all their troops disorganized it was easy for her to pick off groups of Gem warriors on her own. Steven moved his forces in soon afterward, to help with the clean up. She didn’t blame him, her ex-mentor had raised him and she was always one for cleaning. But Connie still couldn’t face him. She simply gave chase into the wilderness, and had spent the last two and a half years alone tracking stragglers down through the bush.

More than anything, though. She wanted to find Yellow Diamond. She knew that the leader of the Gems was on the ship that orbited her planet. She needed a way to get on that ship. To kill Yellow Diamond. It was the only way that Earth would be safe. That Steven would be safe.

She neared the clearing she’d followed the tracks to, and sure enough it was full of non-combatant Homeworld Gems. Pearls, Peridots, and even a few wayward royals who were in over their heads. A fine bounty for the weeks of work she spent following the trail.

Shards were scattered all across the dust of the clearing as Connie pinned an Emerald to moderately sized piece of Gem equipment. The Emerald struggled briefly before giving up knowing her fate was sealed. A facade of calm overtook the Gem. It was certainly a facade. Connie had learned the faces of grief, and calm wasn’t one of them.

She learned very little from the Emerald. She never did have the stomach for torture. While she thought her enemies deserved to suffer, she seldom found herself wanting to drag it out.

“Fine work, taking out this camp of worthless Homeworld Gems, Connie.”  
“Why thank you, Connie.”


	3. It's Not Even Past

Later. The war was over. The Earth was safe. What now? What was there for her?

Beach City hadn’t changed as much as she had expected in thirty years. Well, it had still changed a lot, but the land was there, mostly. All of its old inhabitants either relocated or passed on. That might have made Connie sad, if she had any more room for sadness.

The town had been converted into an asylum for Ex-Homeworld Gems that had decided to stay on Earth when the truce was signed. It was a sight to see, so many Gems bustling about, working together to form a community. Working together for something constructive.

She walked straight through the town. They ran, cowered, cried. Some Jaspers just stared at her silently. She should have expected this. Did she expect this? She did, didn’t she? She couldn’t remember anything anymore. Was it too many head wounds? Was it the battle trauma she always dismissed? Early onset Alzheimer's? She promised herself she’d get help once the war was over. Now was the time to start thinking about healing. Wasn’t it?

She looked right through the new denizens of the town at her childhood memories. Oddly the sight of burnt out Big Donut was what pushed her over the edge. She never even liked donuts. She realized she had been crying the whole time.

Connie wiped away the tears, she had to face him now, she could cry later.

Music gently drifted out of the windows of a familiar beach house. Connie numbly climbed the steps. She didn’t bother knocking. They were past formalities now. Were they? She just ran her thumb over her wedding band. A memento, maybe it would help her now.

They were both forty five, but he didn’t look a day over twenty. Maybe it was his Gem blood. Did Gems have blood? What was she thinking, of course they didn’t have blood. She of all people should know that. The room itself was messy, like several concurrent parties had occurred on site recently.

Steven stood up. The gentle music of some long forgotten century old band floating through the silence between them.

A reunion.

Steven’s was pressed against her chest, he was still over a foot shorter than her. Tears streamed down both of their faces. The war had taken everything from him. Garnet had been missing for years. They found the remains of an unidentifiable Ruby in a cave in South America with no sign of Sapphire. Of course, she was there when Amethyst had died. She still remembered comforting him that night. Pearl’s state was deteriorating. She had been bubbled in the hopes that one day he’d find a way to help her. Greg, Peedee, Onion, Connie?

“Yes, Steven.”

“I’m just so glad you got to come home.”

Steven just accepted her back. Just like that. She settled back into the house to help Steven watch over the town and the planet. He needed her and she needed him.

But the more she tried to live life with Steven, the more she was reminded of her time behind enemy lines. She was haunted by the faces of the women she’d killed. They fogged her memory and took her back to the battlefield every night. What she’d done. Steven knew what she’d done, she’d told him everything. He still loved her, despite it all. They were even going to have a child. It was her last chance. Steven would live for a thousand years or more. Soon there’d be others. Other, men and women and people and Gems he would love.   

It was her last chance. She wanted to bring something into the world. All her adult life she’d been responsible for taking so many wonderful things out.

As the years passed, the world around her grew. Her daughter went from a rambunctious toddler to a loving teen. The town got bigger and smaller and bigger again. The corrupted Gem monsters they once fought dwindled in number. She became more and more forgetful. The only two constants in her life were Steven and her nightmares. They would always be there, at her side, like he was.

She never really got to come home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go.  
> Now, get off my lawn.


End file.
